Rickie Fowler is the latest PGA Tour standout to commit to next week's star-studded Honda Classic.
The world's 12th-ranked player, Fowler, of Jupiter, joins a field that features 16 of the top 25 players in the world, including No. 1 Rory McIlroy....

Blacks are hip to the "political lecture."
No, not the one about acting properly around law enforcement and trigger-happy policing. This particular bit of chastisement surfaces around election time when the political punditry starts bemoaning that black...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Blake Adams figured he was already way ahead of the game when he teed off in first round of the Humana Challenge. A high spot on the leaderboard was a bonus.
Returning from hip replacement surgery, the 39-year-old Adams shot an...

LA QUINTA, Calif. — Michael Putnam made nine birdies in an 11-hole stretch Thursday and finished with a 9-under 63 to take a one-stroke lead in the Humana Challenge.
In ideal conditions in the Coachella Valley, Putnam birdied Nos. 7, 9 and 10 on...

Thursday was a typical opening day at the Humana Challenge.
As usual, everybody gushed about the conditions in the desert.
"Awesome weather, awesome golf courses," defending champion Patrick Reed said.
His playing partner, Matt Kuchar, chimed in: "We got just a perfect day today, and the forecast is for more of the same."
There was a leaderboard that included a few familiar names and some others who rise to the surface on the PGA Tour only occasionally.
One of the latter was the leader,...

Mark Wilson just didn't get it. He's the first to admit studying, homework and excelling in the classroom weren't anywhere near the top of his agenda in his early high school days at Phoebus.
That was the old Wilson. Now, as the redshirt freshman defensive end prepares for Saturday's meeting with Virginia Tech (6-6) in the Military Bowl, Wilson has a hard time imagining the former version of himself ever existed in the first place.
"I was a knucklehead," said Wilson of his freshman and sophomore years...

She’s a trained artist with a love for design. But Lisa Doll is focusing on a new kind of art with the opening of her tattoo shop in Ellicott City, hoping to heal through a unique form of art and ink.
“Just like paint on a canvas, you can use tattooing to go over something someone has lost and give them hope again,” Doll says.
Her new venture, Rose Red Tattoo on Rogers Avenue, is her first attempt at branching out on her own, combining her work at a local tattoo shop and her...

PINEHURST, N.C. -- The 114th U.S. Open begins Thursday morning at Pinehurst No. 2 in the sand hills of North Carolina. A 156-player field will attack a par-70 course that has so many unique challenges throughout.
As a primer for the start of the tournament, we’re offering nine plot lines to watch.
The big stories
1. Pinehurst No. 2 is brown. And undulating. And full of trap doors and torture chambers.
But back to the color scheme of this U.S. Open for a second … brown. Or brownish....

A frantic third quarter saw Phoebus and Heritage put up a pair of touchdowns apiece, but in the end, it was too much Tony Pittman for the Hurricanes to handle.
Pittman ran 31 times for 234 yards and a touchdown as the Phantoms survived a stubborn Heritage squad to beat the Hurricanes 28-27 at Darling Stadium.
Heritage jumped out quickly, scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions.
On the opening drive, after recovering a fumble on the Heritage 14, the Hurricanes marched 86 yards on 11 plays,...

Five of the last six U.S. Open golf champions were previously 0-for in majors. Curtis Strange believes the trend could well continue this week at Congressional Country Club near Washington, D.C.
A Hampton Roads native and ESPN analyst, Strange understands majors and this course. He had three consecutive top-10 finishes at Congressional when it hosted the Kemper Open during the 1980s and, most famously, he won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1988 and '89, the last man to repeat as national champion.
Among...